Five Ways Yoga Increases Your Productivity

Yoga is an ancient practice, mostly originating in the east but over the past few years has been gaining a lot of popularity in the west as well. Its origins can be traced back to 5000 years and some say that it is even older, leading one to ponder on how such an ancient technique has defied the changing tune of time and instead of fading away, has gained popularity around the world.

Yoga Increases Productivity

Yoga has many benefits, some of which include weight loss, better flexibility, health improvement and an overall gain in energy levels. However one lesser known benefits of yoga is that it can even help you be more productive at the work place. This may have you raising an eyebrow in disbelief, but hear me out. Below I have discussed five ways that yoga can Increase your productivity level at the work place:

Yoga Reduces Stress and Anxiety Levels

Stress has taken over the workforce around the world and it can affect an individual both mentally and emotionally. Stress leads to less employee turnover, decreased productivity levels, accidents, absenteeism and even adversely affects you physically due to weakening your immune system, leaving you more susceptible to catching colds and other diseases.

However, there is a way to counteract stress and that is by getting out your yoga mat. Yoga can not only help lower your stress and anxiety levels, it also lowers your blood pressure and heart rate. A research experiment done in Australia on Australian war veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) proved that yoga can help in decreasing stress levels and the benefit continues as long as you keep practicing yoga.

If it can be proven to decrease stress on war veterans with PTSD, imagine how beneficial it can be for the average individual whose level of stress is peanuts compared to war veterans.

It Increases Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the awareness of what is happening in the ‘Now’. Most of the time, we may be working on one task but our minds would be on a hundred other things. Yoga helps alleviate that scattered scenario by helping improve your focus and your concentration.

In essence, it clears away the mental clutter and helps you be more alert. It can also help you to stop multitasking and instead focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking has caught a lot of hype over the past few years but studies show that it is actually quite counterproductive.

One study done by Stanford University proved how multitasking is less productive than focusing on one task at a time while another study by University of London found that people who practiced multitasking showed an actual decrease in their IQ levels similar to those who smoked marijuana or stayed up all night. Now if that isn’t motivation enough to get that yoga mat out, I don’t know what is.

Yoga leads to Improved Energy Levels

Working non-stop without a break, and especially sitting in front of a computer on a desk job all day can really eat away your energy levels. Yoga is one way to decrease fatigue and boost your energy.

Incorporating yoga into your life style means you also start focusing on your health and start eating healthier and more nutritious foods, which positively affect your energy levels as well.

Spiritually, yogi masters claim that yoga helps unblock the energy blocks in your spine and helps bring the life force ‘prana’ to all parts of your body. This has a revitalizing effect. There are also various poses that help increase your energy levels such as the Sun Salutation.

All this increase in your energy can be directed towards your career and you will see your productivity increase manifold in the workplace arena.

It Encourages Creativity

Creativity can be a great advantage to get ahead in any position in life. Your creativity levels can get stagnant in a 9-to-5 job, with you just sitting in front of the desk and working on the computer.

However, yoga has been claimed to be an excellent tool to get your creative juices flowing. It helps you ‘think out of the box’ because practicing yoga involves letting go of old fixed patterns and norms.

It broadens your perspective in life, encourages relaxation and helps you progress in real life. Yoga also teaches patience and that is a vital component of creativity since it takes time and patience to get the ideas from your head translated in to practical form.

Better creativity will lead to better morale and confidence and that can really help improve your client and coworker relationships.

Better Health

Working for the long hours that many jobs demand nowadays can take a physical toll on your body. If you have body aches and are physically not feeling well, that will seriously have a negative impact on your work productivity.

Practicing yoga in your life also means eating well which again leads to improved physical health. It can also help you get a better body image by weight reduction and muscular toning. Better physical health translates in to better productivity at work.

More and more people are becoming aware of the many benefits of yoga, which is why companies like ‘Work from Om’ in New York City are thriving by offering yoga programs for offices and corporate gatherings.

After reading all the above reasons on how yoga can increase your productivity, you can surely agree that whether you are a business owner or an employer or work for yourself, you can definitely benefit from incorporating a bit of yoga in your life style. So get stretching and see your productivity levels shoot up.

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ABOUT ALMA CAUSEY

Alma Causey is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover lives and world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences and express herself through her blogs.